Lovely flats in Chelsea shoe factory

This sunny corner unit at the Spencer Lofts in Chelsea has 10 large windows and 15-foot ceilings in a building that used to be a Buster Brown shoe factory.

The price of Unit 210 is just $289,000, and that includes two deeded outdoor parking spaces.

Built, in 1910, the brick factory building housed the Brown Shoe Co. before being converted into 100 condos in 2004. Along the ground floor is an attached art gallery that shows local artists, a number of whom live in the complex.

The 1,126-square-foot unit has an open floor plan with the bedroom set off by a large walk-in closet.

You enter into an open ­living/dining area with a wall of 10-foot-high windows and a light/fan hanging from 15-foot ceilings. Jelly-jar lamps add to the industrial feel, along with exposed ductwork bracketed wood posts and concrete floors.

To the right is a galley kitchen with Ikea wood and frosted cabinets, Formica counters, stainless-steel Frigidaire gas stove and refrigerator, and a Kitchen­Aid dishwasher that was added in 2009.

The adjacent full bathroom has a white porcelain sink, a white-tiled tub and shower, and also has a stacked Kenmore washer/dryer. There's additional storage above the bathroom, which also holds the unit's just-replaced electric water heater and gas-fired heating and central air conditioning system.

On the wall separating the living area from the bedroom is built-in shelving.

A large walk-in closet with built-in wardrobes on either side screens the corner bedroom, with walls of windows on two sides.

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Genesis creates bible on value

If you are in the market for a mid-sized luxury car that is equipped like a Lexus, looks like a BMW and feels like an Audi, with a lower price tag, look no further than the 2015 Hyundai Genesis AWD.

At just $52,450 fully loaded, the Genesis delivers posh luxury at a modest price. While the Korean manufacturer is not known for high-end vehicles like its Japanese and German counterparts, Hyundai makes a solid effort to continue to gain footing in this category.

Beginning with the heads-up display, which projects speed limit and current speed on the windshield, the Genesis sports features only seen in superior automobiles. The display is adjustable for driver height, making it easier for you to monitor your speed while keeping your eyes on the road.

Like its opulent counterparts, the Genesis has heated and ventilated 12-way-adjustable ultra leather power seats and a supremely comfortable burlwood-framed cabin. The steering wheel has controls for volume, phone and adjusting the cruise control. A large power tilt and slide sunroof lets light in when you want it.

The Genesis, of course, has a proximity key with push-button start — a feature quickly becoming a must in cars over $20,000. Like its pricey rivals, the Hyundai even has puddle lights, a bat signal-like projection from the side view mirrors that lights up the ground with the car moniker.

The mirrors also have safety features such as blind-spot detection and will alert you to crossing traffic.

The Genesis has lane departure detection, which can warn you when you drift. And the smart cruise control keeps the car from gaining on the car in front of it, modifying the speed to match it.

Perhaps the Genesis' best feature is the auto emergency braking, which uses both cameras and radar sensors to keep the vehicle from colliding with another, even if the driver isn't paying attention.

The handling on this car is excellent. A revamped high-performance system with gas shock absorbers translates power to the 18-inch alloy wheels with precision. Driving this car creates a feeling of balance that is expected in a high-end car.

Hyundai tops this car off with a potent Lexicon 17-speaker sound system commanded by a 9.2-inch touchscreen, which also controls the GPS. Menus on the system make sense — an attribute often overlooked even in the luxury market.

The only letdown compared to its higher-priced competition was in performance. While the Genesis' 8-speed automatic transmission with paddle shifters provides a sporty driving experience, the thrust will not impress as much as its competition. Coupled with the fact that the accelerator pedal does not have much depth to it, the Genesis feels like it has little less zip.

Acceleration aside, the Genesis is an excellent value and is well on its way to proving it belongs in the luxury class.

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Architects eye ‘Allston Esplanade’ with Pike redo

Boston Society of Architects members are promoting an "Allston Esplanade" along the Charles River as an offshoot of the Massachusetts Department of Transportation's planned $260 million Mass Pike Allston interchange realignment.

A pair of Boston Society of Architects (BSA) teams developed two plans for the three-plus acres of parkland to spur MassDOT to consider the larger implications of its project — beyond roadway changes — once it opens up new land for redevelopment, according to architect and BSA vice president Tim Love.

"They're both proposals that have lots of advantages and lots of interesting ideas that we think MassDOT should consider very seriously," he said. "Their mission is to redesign the highway interchange. We're saying, 'Here are some issues we think you should think about, too.'"

The proposals involve relocating Soldiers Field Road away from the Charles, creating a river crossing for cyclists and pedestrians and a new MBTA station.

"It was a useful exercise for us to come in and show MassDOT what kind of neighborhood could result from what they're doing," Love said. "The visions … are realistic and financeable through the value of the real estate."

The interchange project is set to start in early 2017. MassDOT did not respond to Herald inquiries.

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Boston has designs on Huntington

It's home to the Boston Symphony Orchestra, New England Conservatory, Huntington Theatre Co., Northeastern University, Museum of Fine Arts, Massachusetts College of Art and Design and Wentworth Institute of Technology.

And now the Boston Redevelopment Authority wants the Huntington Avenue area, known as the "Avenue of the Arts," to live up to that institutional weight in terms of urban design.

The city's planning and economic development agency is seeking proposals to develop design guidelines that will elevate the area's character in terms of future development and a more pedestrian-friendly streetscape.

Its solicitation comes in the wake of zoning relief and conceptual approval granted last year for future projects — individual components of which still need BRA approval — that will effect the Avenue of the Arts, which runs from Massachusetts Avenue to Longwood Avenue, and the immediate surrounding area.

"The idea is to really give a more coherent urban character for this most important avenue," said Kairos Shen, director of planning at the BRA, who conceded it's "not particularly beautiful" now.

Projects set to affect the area include Wentworth's redevelopment of Sweeney Field at 500 Huntington Ave. into a 650,000-square-foot research and academic complex. Northeastern's master plan includes 2 million-plus square feet of new academic, student life, housing and athletic space. The final location and appearance of those buildings, open spaces and public amenities still are subject to BRA approval.

"There could be better coordination among the projects," Shen said. "These guidelines will help us coordinate the specific design and development review."

Future MFA projects include infilling or enclosing the west courtyard, a new wing on the west side of the museum, upgrading the School of the MFA, a new underground parking garage and landscaping.

The BRA study is in line with Boston Mayor Martin J. Walsh's focus on the arts and culture in his administration and the city. Walsh this week named Julie Burros as Boston's first cabinet-level chief of arts and culture, who will oversee the creation of a long-term cultural plan for the city and increase diversity and inclusion in the arts and secure funding.

The planned study was welcomed by the MFA, which asked the BRA to implement a collaborative approach to the future planning of the Avenue of the Arts in August 2013, according to spokeswoman Karen Frascona. "The MFA is pleased that Mayor Martin Walsh and the BRA have authorized a comprehensive planning process, and we look forward to working with our neighbors on a long-term plan for the area," she said.

A spokesman for the BSO said it is "very encouraged by the renewed focus on this incredibly vibrant neighborhood."

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Permits Wynn Resort's next battle

Among the mountain of permits Wynn Resorts must secure to capitalize on its casino license in Everett is a risky waterfront development approval that one expert said is prone to delays and appeals from project opponents.

Wynn, which has a 3-year construction schedule, needs up to 15 permits for its $1.6 billion casino from a range of agencies, including the state departments of transportation, conservation and recreation, and environmental protection, as well as the Boston Transportation Department, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and Massachusetts Water Resources Authority.

Wynn also needs to close a $6 million deal with the MBTA to acquire land for its site access, and file detailed reports with the DEP on cleanup of the arsenic and lead contamination on the former Monsanto site.

One of the most difficult permits Wynn has to obtain for its casino on the Mystic River is a "Chapter 91" waterfront approval, which can be appealed by a group of 10 opponents, as long as five are residents. And it's not unheard of for competitors to prop up local opposition, said Jamy Buchanan Madeja, a permitting expert and former general counsel to the Executive Office of Environmental Affairs.

"The processing time is always long and the appeal opportunities abound," Buchanan Madeja said. "There is no reason this proposal couldn't meet all the legal criteria. However, appeals are allowed either way."

Wynn project manager Chris Gordon acknowledged Chapter 91 is the "longest-lead item" in the menu of approvals it needs, but said the recent explosion of development under the law along Boston's waterfront bodes well.

"I don't think we have any more exposure than a regular developer would have all along the waterfront in Boston," Gordon said. "We've built it into our schedule so it won't hold us up, but it's one we want to make sure we get going on. In this kind of development, you certainly have a lot of regulatory work that's required. We think that we're in pretty good shape."

Gordon said Wynn reps are meeting weekly with state transportation officials to answer their questions about traffic counts, and plan to meet with Boston officials about traffic work at Sullivan Square in Charlestown before filing a key catch-all environmental impact report by the first week of November, when voters will decide whether to repeal the state's casino law.

Gaming commission spokeswoman Elaine Driscoll said the panel will require periodic progress reports from Wynn.

"The commission will use those reports to see where progress is occurring at an appropriate level and where greater speed or effort is needed," Driscoll said in a statement. "However, the commission ... respects the statutory and regulatory responsibilities that other agencies have in making permitting decisions."

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Asian stocks up as US data boost sentiment

SEOUL, South Korea — Asian stock markets were mostly higher Thursday after a surge in new home sales in the U.S. bolstered sentiment. But gains were limited by worries about Europe's stagnant economy and violence in Iraq and Syria.

KEEPING SCORE: Japan outperformed the region with the Nikkei 225 up 1.2 percent to 16,364.74 after the dollar rose above 109 yen overnight, a fresh six-year high. In mainland China, the Shanghai Composite rose 0.3 percent to 2,351.39. Australia's S&P/ASX 200 added 0.1 percent to 5,380.30. Stocks in Southeast Asia rose. South Korea's Kospi drifted 0.1 percent lower to 2,034.80 and Hong Kong's Hang Seng edged down 0.2 percent to 23,884.90.

HOUSING JUMP: The Commerce Department said new home sales climbed 18 percent in August to an annual rate of 504,000 homes, beating the 430,000 expected by economists. It was the fastest clip since May 2008 and a sign that the real estate market might improve after the recovery from the Great Recession stalled during the past year because of sluggish wage growth and rising prices.

ANALYST TAKE: The unexpected increase in U.S. home sales may "indicate that young people are perhaps now starting to feel economically secure enough to buy their own homes," Chang Wei Liang of Mizuho Bank said in a commentary. "Continuation of this strength would provide further concrete evidence that even the labor market for young people is already near normality."

SLOW EUROPE: On Wednesday, data showed that business confidence in Germany, Europe's largest economy, dropped for the fifth straight month. The Ifo institute said its confidence index dropped to 104.7 points for September from 106.3 last month as the mood among executives darkened regarding both the current situation and the outlook for the next six months. The fall was bigger than anticipated.

WALL STREET: The Dow Jones industrial average advanced 0.9 percent to 17,210.06 on Wednesday, its best day since Aug. 18. The Standard & Poor's 500 rose 0.8 percent to 1,998.30 and the Nasdaq composite rose 1 percent to 4,555.22.

ENERGY: Benchmark U.S. crude oil edged down 7 cents to $92.73 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. On Wednesday, the contract rose $1.24 to $92.80 after the government reported a larger-than-expected decline in oil stocks.

CURRENCY: The euro dropped to $1.2767 from $1.2777 late Wednesday. The dollar fell to 109.14 yen from 109.19 yen.

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Ex-worker sues parenting retailer

A former instructor for a Needham-based prenatal and parenting retailer that abruptly shut down this year is suing the company for allegedly failing to give proper notification to employees and for back pay.

Nancy Gair, who worked for Isis Parenting since 2007, has filed a proposed class-action lawsuit alleging the 11-year-old company, which had a devoted following, didn't adequately warn employees that they would be laid off or pay prenatal and parenting class instructors for the time spent setting up and breaking down classes.

Isis Parenting announced Jan. 14 that it was ending its classes — without prior warning to employees or customers — and would close its four stores, which were shuttered by Jan. 27.

In addition to the compensation for an estimated 100 class instructors, the lawsuit seeks 60 days of back pay for approximately 200 Isis employees.

"Far from seeking any sort of windfall, (Gair) — on the behalf of former employees — is simply trying to recover the wages and compensation due to them as a matter of law," said Nicholas J. Rosenberg, Gair's Boston attorney. "We believe the named defendants had the requisite involvement and control over the operations of Isis and are responsible for the employee damages."

Filed in U.S. District Court in Boston, the suit also names as defendants former Isis Parenting CFO Peter Delahunt, and former director Mark Schwartz and his Hub investment firm, Palladin Consumer Retail Partners. Delahunt couldn't be reached; Schwartz declined comment.

Court documents allege Isis Parenting failed to give proper employee notice under the federal Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act, which generally requires certain employers to provide 60 days' notice before layoffs.

"The WARN Act is designed to ensure that when a company is shut down and terminates a large number of employees, that the employees have ample notice so that they can get unemployment and job transition assistance, make financial arrangements, look for new work, etc.," Rosenberg said. "The Isis employees here didn't have that chance."

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Google X chief touts out-there projects

Google X — the company's top-secret research and design lab — will never immediately reject an idea, Google's "Captain of Moonshots" said yesterday at an emerging technology conference at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

"When someone says why didn't we think about space elevators, it took days for us to discard it," said Astro Teller, head of Google X since 2010. "This is Google's DNA."

Speaking at the EmTech MIT conference hosted by MIT Technology Review at the MIT Media Lab yesterday, Teller said Google X projects have to be things that can provide significant value for society. The key, he said, is to raise expectations.

"When you unleash people's ability to be creative ... you often find solutions to that problem that are easier."

Google X is behind Google Glass, and is working on self-driving cars, smart contact lenses for people with diabetes and Project Wing, which is testing drone deliveries in Australia. He also said the balloons used in Project Loon, Google X's effort to encircle the globe with balloons that provide wireless Internet access, have traveled as far as the distance to the moon and back three times, and more will be up in the next year.

"We should have a semi-permanent ring of balloons in the southern hemisphere so we can do significant testing," he said.

The project is designed to provide reliable Internet access to the 5 billion people who do not have it now.

"Find something that would make the world a radically better place," Teller said. "If you make a lot of value (for consumers), the money will come back and find us in a fair and relevant way."

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100 arrested at Wall Street climate crisis sit-in

NEW YORK — A day after over 100,000 people marched to warn that climate change is destroying the Earth, more than 1,000 activists blocked parts of Broadway in Manhattan's financial district in a sit-in to protest what they see as corporate and economic institutions' role in the climate crisis.

Monday's demonstration was planned as a more confrontational sequel to Sunday's march, with many participants Monday deliberately risking arrest by obstructing traffic in the heart of the nation's financial capital. Over 100 people, including a person wearing a white polar bear suit, were arrested Monday night after they refused to leave Broadway near Wall Street, police said. Most of the arrests were for disorderly conduct.

Earlier, the protest took a tense turn as the demonstrators tried to push past police barricades at Wall Street, sparking a brief clash with officers.

But by and large, police, office workers and tourists watched alike as the activists chanted such messages as "we can't take this climate heat; we've got to shut down Wall Street" and bounced huge balloons meant to represent carbon dioxide bubbles.

"I wanted to come specifically to disrupt Wall Street because it's Wall Street that's fueling this," Youngstown, Ohio, urban farmer and bread-maker Ben Shapiro said as he sat on Broadway by the famed bull statue. He had skipped Sunday's march, focusing instead on the financial system that he feels enables environmental destruction for the sake of energy and other industries.

"I'm going after the source of the problem," he said.

Organizers said the FloodWallStreet sit-in aimed to disrupt business in the financial district. Demonstrators didn't obtain a permit for the rally, police said, and participants such as Jenna DeBoisblanc arrived anticipating arrests as a way to underscore their message.

"If you're willing to risk arrest, it certainly demonstrates that it's something very urgent," said DeBoisblanc, a New Orleans environmental activist who sported a superhero outfit and green wig.

If Sunday's march was about building consensus around a crisis, the sit-in sought to take on institutions protesters hold responsible for it, said demonstrator Nicholas Powers, who teaches black and feminist literature at the State University of New York at Old Westbury.

Peppered with elements of performance art — one person wore a polar-bear suit, another Grim Reaper-like robes and a gas masks — the protest encompassed Occupy Wall Street veterans, antiwar activists who see climate change as a still bigger cause and residents of areas battered by Superstorm Sandy.

"We're really fighting for resiliency," said Alexis Smallwood, whose home in the Far Rockaway section of Queens was flooded by the October 2012 storm.

Participants encountered barricades and a heavy police presence as they tried to stream onto Wall Street, home to the New York Stock Exchange, after several hours of demonstrating by the bull statue nearby. Some tried to push through the barricades, and police and protesters tussled as officers held the barriers in place, using pepper spray. Police said no injuries were reported.

The barricades stayed. So did hundreds of demonstrators, who continued sitting and standing outside the barriers, on Broadway.

Some bystanders took the disruption in stride: "Every time I come here, there's somebody here protesting," said Matilde Soligno, visiting from Bologna, Italy.

But others were skeptical about what the protest stood to accomplish.

"These people aren't convincing me of anything," said Christopher Keane, a lawyer who works in the area.

"How did they get here today?" he asked, if not through some use of the fossil fuels they deplore.

On Sunday, actors Mark Ruffalo and Evangeline Lilly were among the protesters in at the New York demonstration, one of many around the world urging policymakers to take quick action.

___

Reach Jennifer Peltz on Twitter @ jennpeltz.

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Messaging app seeks to bring voices back to phones

SAN FRANCISCO — Longtime technology guru Ray Ozzie wants to bring back the emotions of the human voice to phones.

His mission began more than two years ago as Ozzie noticed people were increasingly communicating through texts, emails and social media posts instead of calling each other.

"When you see nothing but words and numbers, it becomes very mechanical and very transactional," Ozzie said in an interview. "But when you hear the sound of someone's voice, it really brings it much closer to home."

Ozzie, 58, Microsoft's former chief software architect, hopes to orchestrate voice's comeback through Talko, a mobile application being released Tuesday for the iPhone. A version for Android phones is expected in a few months.

Talko sends the equivalent of text messages in the form of a spoken word. Talko users can record a voice message and send it over the Internet to anyone else with the app. Recipients listen to the recording when it's convenient, rather than being interrupted by a traditional phone call.

All messages will be stored for 10 days, though users can buy a subscription — expected to be $5 to $9 per month — to permanently store messages. For the first few months, Talko will store all voice recordings for free.

Users can choose to make their recordings available to more than one person, a feature that Ozzie believes will make Talko ideal for employees working in the same department of a company.

The five DigitalGlobe workers who installed the app in July as part of Talko's testing didn't use it much initially, partly because they were so accustomed to texting and emailing each other or trying to schedule a conference call when they needed to talk, said Ed Locher, DigitalGlobe's senior vice president of corporate marketing.

But Talko turned out to be valuable in the five days leading up to the launch of a DigitalGlobe satellite last month, Locher said. "It reminded me of a walkie talkie," he said. "It was much faster than texting or trying to set up a conference call."

Ozzie isn't under the delusion that voice messages are going to supplant popular communications apps such as WhatsApp, Snapchat and Tango, which combine texts and photo sharing. Talko also accommodates texts and photos to supplement the voice recordings.

Another technology industry veteran, Alan Braverman, also is trying to give voices a new outlet on phones. Last week, his San Francisco startup incubator, Giant Pixel, released an iPhone and iPad app called Sobo that offers a vocal twist to Twitter, the popular short-messaging network. Sobo users can record six-second sound bites that are then broadcast to their followers. Braverman is best known as a co-founder of Yammer, a social networking tool for businesses that Microsoft Corp. bought for $1.2 billion in 2012.

Meanwhile, the Messages app in Apple's new iOS 8 software for mobile devices also lets users record and send short audio messages. Recipients raise their iPhones to their ears to automatically play the message. Under default settings, messages expire two minutes after listening.

Ozzie was well known before Microsoft bought one of his previous startups, Groove Networks, for an undisclosed amount in 2005. In the 1980s, he played a key role in creating a suite of document-sharing tools at Lotus Development Corp., now owned by IBM Corp. Shortly after joining Microsoft, Ozzie succeeded company co-founder Bill Gates as chief software architect, a role he held until he left Microsoft in 2010.

The 11-employee startup behind Talko is funded by Ozzie's personal fortune and investments from venture capital firms Andreessen Horowitz and Greylock Partners. Lotus funder Mitch Kapor also is backing Talko.

Although Talko is focusing on the business market, Ozzie said he hopes employees will have such a positive experience that they will encourage their family members and friends to install the app, too.

"I really do believe it will spread by word of mouth," Ozzie said.

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NASA's Maven explorer arrives at Mars after a year

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — NASA's Maven spacecraft arrived at Mars late Sunday after a 442 million-mile journey that began nearly a year ago.

The robotic explorer fired its brakes and successfully slipped into orbit around the red planet, officials confirmed.

"I think my heart's about ready to start again," said Maven's chief investigator, Bruce Jakosky of the University of Colorado. "All I can say at this point is, 'We're in orbit at Mars, guys!'"

Now the real work begins for the $671 million mission, the first dedicated to studying Mars' upper atmosphere.

Flight controllers in Colorado will spend the next six weeks adjusting Maven's altitude and checking its science instruments, and observing a comet streaking by. Then in early November, Maven will start probing the upper atmosphere of Mars. The spacecraft will conduct its observations from orbit; it's not meant to land.

Scientists believe the Martian atmosphere holds clues as to how Earth's neighbor went from being warm and wet billions of years ago to cold and dry. That early wet world may have harbored microbial life, a tantalizing question yet to be answered.

NASA launched Maven last November from Cape Canaveral, the 10th U.S. mission sent to orbit the red planet. Three earlier ones failed, and until the official word came of success late Sunday night, the entire team was on edge.

"I don't have any fingernails any more, but we've made it," said Colleen Hartman, deputy director for science at Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. "It's incredible."

The spacecraft was clocking more than 10,000 mph when it hit the brakes for the so-called orbital insertion, a half-hour process. The world had to wait 12 minutes to learn the outcome, once it occurred, because of the lag in spacecraft signals given the 138 million miles between the two planets on Sunday.

"Based on observed navigation data, congratulations, Maven is now in Mars orbit," came the official announcement. Flight controllers applauded the news and shook hands; laughter filled the previously tension-filled room.

Noted NASA project manager David Mitchell: "Wow, what a night. You get one shot with Mars orbit insertion, and Maven nailed it tonight."

Maven joins three spacecraft already circling Mars, two American and one European. And the traffic jam isn't over: India's first interplanetary probe, Mangalyaan, will reach Mars in two days and also aim for orbit. Jakosky wished the team well.

Jakosky, who's with the University of Colorado's Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics in Boulder, hopes to learn where all the water on Mars went, along with the carbon dioxide that once comprised an atmosphere thick enough to hold moist clouds.

The gases may have been stripped away by the sun early in Mars' existence, escaping into the upper atmosphere and out into space. Maven's observations should be able to extrapolate back in time, Jakosky said.

Maven — short for Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution Mission — will spend at least a year collecting data. That's a full Earth year, half a Martian one. Its orbit will dip as low as 78 miles above the Martian surface as its eight instruments make measurements. The craft is as long as a school bus, from solar wingtip to tip, and as hefty as an SUV.

Maven will have a rare brush with a comet next month.

The nucleus of newly discovered Comet Siding Spring will pass 82,000 miles from Mars on Oct. 19. The risk of comet dust damaging Maven is low, officials said, and the spacecraft should be able to observe Siding Spring as a science bonus.

Lockheed Martin Corp., Maven's maker, is operating the mission from its control center at Littleton, Colorado.

This is NASA's 21st shot at Mars and the first since the Curiosity rover landed on the red planet in 2012. Just this month, Curiosity arrived at its prime science target, a mountain named Sharp, ripe for drilling. The Opportunity rover is also still active a decade after landing.

All these robotic scouts are paving the way for the human explorers that NASA hopes to send in the 2030s.

___

Online:

NASA: http://mars.nasa.gov/maven/

University of Colorado: http://lasp.colorado.edu/home/maven/

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US firm in China meat scandal lays off 340 staff

BEIJING — A U.S. meat supplier said Monday it is laying off most of the workforce of a Chinese subsidiary accused of selling expired beef and chicken to McDonald's, KFC and other major restaurant chains.

Shanghai Husi Food Co. has been under investigation since a Shanghai TV station reported in July it repackaged and sold old meat. Six employees were arrested in August on suspicion of producing substandard products.

Its owner, OSI Group of Aurora, Illinois, said it will lay off 340 people at the Shanghai unit. It said a small number of employees would be kept on while the investigation is underway. The website of Shanghai Husi says it employs about 500 people.

"Over the past two months, Shanghai Husi has experienced significant financial and customer losses," said an OSI Group statement. "It is very unlikely that production will be resumed soon."

The scandal has alarmed Chinese diners and disrupted operations for fast food brands.

Product safety is unusually sensitive in China following scandals over the past decade in which infants, hospital patients and others have been killed or sickened by phony or adulterated milk powder, drugs and other goods.

KFC owner Yum Brands Inc. and McDonald's Corp. said they immediately stopped using products from Husi.

Burger King Corp., Starbucks Corp., pizza chain Papa John's International Inc. and a Dicos, a chain of sandwich shops, withdrew products with ingredients from suppliers that dealt with Husi.

OSI has announced plans for a "quality control center" in Shanghai and said it will spend 10 million yuan ($1.6 million) on a food safety education campaign.

The company announced Sept. 1 it was turning over management of a separate facility in the southern city of Guangzhou that produces vegetable and fruit products to KanPak China, owned by Golden State Foods of Irvine, California.

KFC has broken all ties with OSI Group in China, the United States and Australia.

McDonald's, which has bought meat from OSI in the United States since the 1950s, complained it felt deceived but has said it will stick with the company, possibly because Chinese food processors cannot match OSI's scale and technology.

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EdTrip’s a field day for teachers

For most students, field trips are something to look forward to as a day away from the classroom and, every so often, as a chance to see for themselves something truly transformative, something they've only heard about in school or read about in books.

But for teachers, coordinating these trips can be a logistical nightmare of finding the right destination, drawing up an itinerary and collecting dozens of parental-consent forms — all things that take time away from teaching.

So a MassChallenge finalist offers to do all of that for them, all the while drumming up business for Bay State venues.

"Coordinating field trips is a massive investment of time if you're a teacher," said EdTrips CEO Jakob Garrow, who used to work for an educational travel company with his co-founder, Laura Wallendal. "We realized if there were a way to make it easier for teachers, more of them would take trips."

The two teamed up with Jillian Kando, their chief technology officer, to create a website that, in addition to collecting payments and parents' permission, allows teachers to search for a destination by name, subject or the grade they teach. Or they can use EdTrips' concierge service, which passes along a 20 percent discount off the cost of tickets to their destinations if they choose from a curated list of field-trip matches based on criteria such as their grade, their budget and the distance they want to travel.

Teachers pay nothing to use the website, while venues pay EdTrips a percentage of overall ticket sales for each trip organized through the site.

Since April, the company has partnered with 247 Massachusetts destinations, including Boston PhotoWalks Tours and Scavenger Hunts, Peabody Essex Museum and Woods Hole Science Aquarium, with plans to expand to venues in other states.

Peter McGovern, who teaches Spanish and Mandarin Chinese at Catholic Memorial School in West Roxbury, hopes to use the website to organize trips that would incorporate cultural opportunities such as a show or a tour of Chinatown, where his students could practice their Mandarin.

"Students could see the real-world value of being able to communicate with people in their language," he said. "And having the permission slip collection and payment online would save a lot of time."

Since Labor Day, at least four teachers have used EdTrips to pay by credit card for field trips to the Paul Revere House, which otherwise takes only cash or checks the day of the trip, said Emily Holmes, education director of the Paul Revere Memorial Association, which runs the historic North End site.

"Definitely we're hoping we'll have exposure to a new audience," Holmes said.

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Hyundai Santa Fe’s onetime brake lockup is puzzling

Last week I parallel-parked my 2003 Hyundai Sante Fe. I came out to drive away and went about 3 feet before the car stopped like the brakes had locked up. I went back and forth about 3 feet at least three more times with the same results. I left the car and came back the next morning and drove to a garage with no problems. The garage scanned all vehicle control modules for codes — none found. They also found no service bulletins from Hyundai pertaining to this symptom. They inspected all brake components — all are in good condition. Any suggestion?

I'm not often completely stumped by an automotive question, but this one has me really intrigued. Looking at the issue logically, my first thought is something physically stopping the vehicle from moving more than 3 feet.

Do you have any friends — or enemies — who might play a trick on you like a strategically placed pair of cinder blocks? I remember an unnamed friend who, for the fun of it, chained the rear axle of an old Chevy wagon to the adjacent fire hydrant and watched as his friend tried to pull away. I'll leave the results to your imagination!

What kind of mechanical or electronic issue could have caused this and then suddenly disappeared without a trace? I'm open to suggestions, but the only normal "action" that might have somehow compounded into this is initialization of the antilock braking system (ABS). Each time the vehicle is started, in the first few miles per hour of driving, the ABS tests itself by actuating the pump, dump valves and solenoids to make sure they're working. This may be felt as a slight vibration in the brake pedal.

With that said, this initialization only occurs once per key cycle, so it doesn't seem particularly likely to be the culprit. In fact, no brake lockup would seem likely because the vehicle rolls roughly one tire revolution before the lockup.

Anyone else want to take a shot at this?

Oh, almost forgot — was there a parking ticket on the windshield? And did you check for a wheel lock to disable the car?

I have a 2014 Acura RDX that is a very nice vehicle except for the fact that the passenger seat cannot be raised vertically. My wife is fairly short and sits too low compared with the driver's side, which has an electric lift. The dealer said that there is no fix for this. It seems like a simple problem. Have you heard of any electric, or manual lifts for this ? Or, simply some wedges installed under the seat mounts?

You could try a mobility store to find a booster for her seat, or perhaps an auto upholstery shop could build up the seat with thicker or firmer foam.

The reason it seems simple yet there's no solution from the dealer is that any change that alters a motor vehicle creates a liability issue for the dealer and carmaker.

Personally, I have installed spacers under the seat mounts on a couple of my personal vehicles, but like I said, I'd suggest a visit to a mobility store.

When I was topping off the oil in my car I accidentally put in half a quart of DEX/MERC automatic transmission fluid. Can I drive it? If yes, how far before changing the oil? Or do I need to change it now?

Automatic transmission fluid is primarily a high-quality lubricating oil with special additives for the transmission, so you probably don't have an immediate problem. But the fact that you were topping up the oil means it's been in the crankcase for a while, so why not get the oil changed now and put the worry aside?

Paul Brand, author of "How to Repair Your Car," is an automotive troubleshooter, driving instructor and former race -car driver. Readers may write to him at: Star Tribune, 425 Portland Ave. S., Minneapolis, Minn., 55488 or via email at paul brand@startribune.com. Please explain the problem in detail and include a daytime phone number.

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